I don’t do too many book reviews and, in fact, I wrote this one quite a few months ago, just after I had finished the book. At the time, I felt it was such a good example of all the things I like in a book that it was worth a post! That is a little strange in itself since, if you read my post about the ‘Three Peters’, which included Peter James, you might recall that I said while I really like the Roy Grace series, Grace himself is not for me the most appealing detective fiction hero. Don’t know why but he just doesn’t absolutely do it for me.
Anyway, I decided to post this review mainly because, following a pilot episode, once again a few months ago, ITV have decided to run a series of Roy Grace stories, starring John Simm who, you may recall from an earlier post is, in my view, almost perfect for the role of the policeman. Funnily enough, having watched the pilot and two episodes so far, I haven’t been overwhelmed by them. In my view, two hours is a bit long and I found myself getting a bit bored and drifting away from the programme. I much prefer the books and here is my review of the most recent one although I believe there is another due soon!
So, what I really like about ‘Left You Dead’ is that it has all the characteristics or qualities that I’m looking for in a detective novel. It is the most recent member of a long-running and enjoyable series – there are now sixteen of them – and that means I am familiar with all the main characters and I know what has been going on in their lives. Consequently, I am up to speed and wondering what is going to happen to them all next. In this series, we have Grace himself, his wife, Cleo, and his children, Noah with Cleo, and Bruno, his son by his first and late wife, Sandy, who was a story all by herself! Then we have his second-in-command, Glenn Branson, and various other officers on his team, such as Norman Potting, and his nemesis and boss, ACC Cassian Pewe. I like being familiar with the various characters and a substantial part of my enjoyment of the book is in seeing how their roles develop, almost like the actors in a play.
To a large extent, as long as the plot is okay, that’s good enough for me but, in this case, in my opinion, there are lots of bonuses! A really interesting and well-thought-out main story with all sorts of twists and turns to the extent that you’re not absolutely sure what is going on. From time to time, I thought I’d cracked it only to find another twist and, even right at the end, it took me in a slightly different direction from the one I was expecting. In addition to that, though, there are two sub-plots going on in the background, one involving Cassian Pewe which is not really resolved satisfactorily but left bubbling along nicely to be resumed in the next book, and another particularly sad episode which threatens, at times, to take over from the main plot. To go into any more detail would start to give the game away so I’ll leave it there other than to say that I really enjoyed it and finished it in a couple of days. It comes with my strong recommendation and, if you’re a Roy Grace fan, I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I did, if you haven’t already done so. If you haven’t tried the series before, I think it would be a pretty good read on its own but, as ever, I would suggest you start at the beginning and work your way through the whole sixteen, if